Level of Government

Gov Jared Polis (D-CO) and the Colorado Office of Information Technology (OIT) launched the Colorado Digital Government Strategic Plan.

The Federal Communications Commission's Wireline Competition Bureau, in conjunction with the Office of Economics and Analytics, has authorized Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (Auction 904) support for 1,865 winning bids. This is the 14th round of funding authorization for the RDOF program. All information, including the winning bids found in Attachments A and B, can be found here.

On October 6, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Treasury approved Michigan's plan to use its full Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund allocation to support broadband expansion in the state.

Spectrum is constructing a fiber-optic network expansion project that will bring gigabit broadband and other Spectrum services to over 4700 homes and small businesses in Wexford County (MI). Spectrum services are already available to some residents and small business owners in the buildout area. The buildout is part of Spectrum’s approximately $5 billion investment in unserved rural areas, which includes more than $1 billion won in the Federal Communications Commission’s Rural Digital Opportunity Fund (RDOF) auction.

Investor-owned utilities—usually large, publicly traded electricity providers that are regulated by state public utility commissions—can have a major impact in delivering broadband to rural communities and other underserved areas by allowing broadband providers to leverage existing utility infrastructure for new high-speed internet connections. Virginia is one of the first states to employ this strategy through its Utility Leverage Program, which aligns the state’s broadband goals with efforts to modernize its electrical infrastructure to successfully expand broadband service into areas tha

The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) has awarded 23 grants as part of the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program (TBCP). These new grants, totaling more than $601.6 million, bring the total of the program to $1.35 billion awarded to 94 Tribal entities.

Louisiana officials have rejected a protest from Cable One's Sparklight which aimed to stop the state from awarding a $4 million grant to Conexon to build fiber broadband to 851 locations in East Carroll Parish (LA). Conexon was one of several service providers to receive broadband infrastructure grants through Louisiana's Granting Unserved Municipalities Broadband Opportunities (GUMBO) program as part of a $130 million funding round.

Broadband is critical to strengthening our economy, improving educational opportunities, and enhancing the delivery of health care, public safety and other government services. “If you can’t play in this space in the 21st century, you discover that your opportunities are limited,” said Governor Charlie Baker (R-MA).

The New York State Library recently released the 2022 Digital Inclusion Toolkit. This new resource is aimed at empowering libraries and other community organizations as they move forward together with digital inclusion and digital equity work.

President Biden signed an Executive Order on Enhancing Safeguards for United States Signals Intelligence Activities (E.O.) directing the steps that the United States will take to implement the US commitments under the European Union-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-US DPF) introduced by President Biden and European Commission President von der Leyen in March of 2022. Transatlantic data flows are critical to enabling the $7.1 trillion EU-US economic relationship. The Executive Order bolsters an already rigorous array of privacy and civil liberties safeguards for U.S.